Randall Hyde wrote:> I don't have any numbers for you, because they would be meaningless> However, it is safe to say that a *good* assembly programmer will> never do any worse than a compiler and sometimes significantly> better.

We consistently seeing production code (well debugged and that last
squeeze so it will fit in ROM) written in assembly beaten by compiled
code that is implemented as algorithmically the same.

Our studies show that the areas the compiler wins is in data flow
analysis which a simple accounting problem to a compiler and tough for
the assembly programmer even those who are using spread sheets to
track variables.

The compiler is more willing to use code sequences that are not easily
maintained in assembly sources than the assembly language programmers.